PE Internship interview HELP
I have a first round internship interview with an associate on the investments team at UMM PE firm. The interview is one hour and I was told to expect the process to be 2-3 rounds including a case study. This is my first ever interview with a traditional buyout firm (and to be honest, I feel like I am a little underqualified). What should I expect?
So far my prep as gone over:
-Motivational questions: Why PE/Why this firm?
-Fit/Behaviorals: just porting over my prep for other roles
-Commercial Awareness: understanding the industry, the firm (operating model, sectoral/portfolio investment theses, recent deals), market landscape, macro
-Past transaction experience
However, I am really lost on what technicals I should expect. So far, I have covered paper LBOs, basic accounting, and valuations. I saw on Glassdoor that technicals tend to be phrased as a case study rather than a direct question from say the 400 questions guide, and can also be quite open ended (e.g. why would you prefer x over y)
If anyone could direct me on what type of questions I should expect (especially covering technicals) I would deeply appreciate it.
I haven't been getting much traction in my other applications; hence, I am a little nervous and really want to land this role.
(Also any general interview advice or information you think would be really helpful is much appreciated)
Bump 😭
learn technicals and accounting
Focus hard on your accounting & technical knowledge.
Practice building EV -> EqV bridges to gain an understanding of things like Pensions, Leases, Minority Interest/Investment in associates beyond just regurgitating the normal Net Debt answer.
Try and do a few 3FS builds; there are more than enough resources on YouTube that cover this for free.
Make sure your Why PE over IBD is tight. They get more granular, and become more of a critical discussion than banking interviews (imo), where they just accept the answer and move on.
If you have any deals that you have worked on, make sure you have a clear understanding of what you did, where this fits into the broader process, what the buyer/seller was looking for and your own opinion. Some good posts on the forum describe how to do this better than I have alluded to above.
Best of luck
Appreciate ya, just a final question - do you think my expected breakdown of the interview is accurate:
Intro/Motivation: 5 mins
Deal Experience: 10 - 15 mins
Technicals: 15 - 25 mins
Behaviourals: 10 mins
Questions: Last 5 mins
Also do you know where I can find technical questions written up as a case study?
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